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The Museum at Your Side

On the Subject of Seeds

Patricia Larenas loves seeds. With a background in horticulture and art, her work aims to inspire appreciation for this life stage of plants. She also works directly with seeds, helping others grow edible gardens and save seeds. This project explores the germination and growth of a Hopi red lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus). The following is written by Patricia.

A sample of Pala hatiko, a kind of lima bean
Pala hatiko (Phaseolus lunatus) is the Hopi name for this variety of lima bean. Lima beans originated in South America in the area now known as Peru, and were named after the Peruvian city of Lima.

Genetic Diversity

I’ve drawn three beans to show the diversity of the seed coat color: 1. solid red-brown, 2. red-brown with dark streaks and spots, and 3. mostly dark with red-brown streaks and spots. The diversity in color of the beans is an indication of  the genetic diversity in this variety. This is an advantage because genetic diversity means that this bean could have more ability to adapt to different environments.

For example, lima beans usually like to grow in hot areas like the Southwestern and Southern USA . My garden in the Bay Area is cooler than those areas, so with its ability to adapt, this bean may do just fine in my garden under cooler conditions. By growing it for a few years and saving seeds from the most vigorous and productive plants, I can create my own land race that is adapted to growing well in my area.

Germination

All viable seeds are alive. By viable I mean they have the ability to grow once they germinate.  Conditions that kill seeds are: exposure to warm or hot temperatures, old age, exposure to light, humidity that can cause mold to grow or seeds to rot, and diseases. Seeds can stay dormant, but alive, while they are waiting for the proper conditions that will induce them to germinate. Germination is the process by which a seed begins to sprout and develop into a seedling. The proper conditions for seeds to germinate vary greatly for different types of seeds and they have to do with temperature, moisture, and exposure to light or darkness. Additionally, some seeds need a period of exposure to cold, usually about the temperature of your refrigerator (called stratification) before they germinate. This could be from a few weeks to a few months. Other seeds need to have their seed coats abraded or damaged (called scarification) a bit so that moisture can penetrate to begin the germination process. Vegetable seeds rarely need stratification or scarification, but some flower seeds do.

An illustration of the germination and growth of a lima bean seed

Bean Seeds

Lima bean seeds need soil temperatures of at least 750 F to germinate (up to 900F), besides moisture (water). As shown in my drawings, first, the root radicle grows out of the seed, and the seed coat begins to retract as the bean swells with growth. The seed leaves, or cotyledons, are the two halves that make up the bean seed, these start to open up and the true leaves grow out from in between them, while the radicle develops into a stem and roots. The little seed is now a seedling ready to grow into a full sized plant that will flower and make lima beans!

Patricia Larenas is a featured artist in the 2020 exhibition of science illustration, The Art of Nature.
Find Patricia’s art on Instagram @plarenas_onpaper
See her website for tips on growing your veggie garden and saving seeds http://www.urbanartichoke.com/

Summer Solstice Sun Prints

A summer solstice sun print being made

Happy Summer Solstice! What better way to celebrate than creating art with sunlight? Follow along and harness the power of the sun to create your own sun prints using objects found in nature, construction paper, and sunlight.

Astronomically, the June solstice marks the first day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere, but many cultures consider this event to signal midsummer. This year, solstice occurs at 2:34 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 20, 2020, which is the exact moment that the Earth’s North Pole is leaning most toward the sun.

The materials for a sun print laid out

Materials:
Construction paper
Nature objects

Optional:
Saran wrap
Plexiglass
Tape
Scissors

  1. Place object(s) on construction paper. If your object is heavy, like a rock, move on to step two! If it is lighter, like a feather or leaf, you may want to tape it down (masking tape works best), or put a piece of saran wrap or plexiglass over the paper (glass won’t work because it will block the UV rays from the sun, which we need to make our prints). You can also cut paper into shapes and tape them to your construction paper.
  2. Place paper under the sun. Since we’re doing this on the solstice, we’ll have many hours of daylight — more than any other day of the year! Hopefully we also have sunny skies with few clouds, which will make our project go faster. If not, however, that’s okay. Just leave your paper out longer. Give your project at least two hours in the sun. Place your paper on the ground and make sure everything is secure so that the wind won’t blow anything away.
  3. Remove objects and enjoy your artwork! Why do you think the sun changed the color of the paper? Why did the paper not change color where the objects were placed?
A small collection of sun prints

Post by Marisa

Video: Kelp and Conservation

This Collections Close-Up video explores two kinds of conservation: the preservation of biodiversity records in the form of marine algae specimens and the fight to save the kelp forests of the California Coast.

About the series: Zoom into the stories, secrets, and science of our collections during monthly webinars with Collections Manager Kathleen Aston. This live event is an extension of our monthly Collections Close-Up blog, with added insights and intrigue. Members are invited to participate in this program before it is made available to the general public as well as ask questions directly of Kathleen.

Not yet a member? Join today!

Resources:

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Chemical Sedimentary Rocks

This week the Geology Gents are rounding out our recent discussions about the three main rock types (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic) by digging a little deeper into sedimentary rocks. This week we’ll explore how sedimentary rocks can be further impacted by their environments, resulting in the phenomenon of chemical sedimentary rocks. Some well known examples are geodes and opals.

About the series: Join the Geology Gents, Gavin and Graham, for weekly conversations about rocks live on Facebook. Each week we’ll explore a different geologic topic, from Santa Cruz formations to tips for being a more effective rockhound. Graham Edwards and Gavin Piccione are PhD candidates in geochronology with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Submit your questions ahead of time on Facebook or by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org, or during the program live on Facebook. Feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.

Watch Past Pop-Ups

Observation Jar Activity

Observation jar full of cool plants

Look all around you – how are the things we see around us different from each other? How are they the same? Scientists put things into groups based on their observations of similarities and differences. Why do you think this is?

Today we are going to do some scientific sorting using objects you can find around or outside of your house. We’ll make observations, explore the different ways we can group objects together and create a jar full of our fun finds!

Observation Jar Activity (PDF | HTML)

Preparation
What you will need:

  • A clear jar or bottle.
    • You can reuse a plastic water bottle, pasta sauce jar, or any kind of clear container that you can find
  • At least 4 different found objects 

Procedure
1. ) It’s time to collect some objects! 

  • Make sure to take a trusted adult with you if you choose to leave the house! 
  • We don’t want to put any living creatures in the jar. Make sure to check for tiny insects on any of your objects before putting them in the jar if you collect things from outside your house.
  • Try to gather things that are different sizes, shapes, and colors.
  • Some ideas could include: rocks, leaves, coins, small toys, flowers, shells, buttons, or small sticks. 

2. ) Now that we’ve collected our objects, let’s take a little bit of time to look more closely at the things we found before we put them in our jar. See if you can answer the following questions about your objects!

  • How many things did you find? I found _____________ things.
  • Pick one object that catches your eye and see what you can notice about it. See if you can answer these questions about the thing that you found! 
  • What do you notice about it? What do you wonder about it? What does it remind you of?
  • You can also think about…
    • Where did you find it?
    • What color is it?
    • What does it feel like in your hand? 
    • How big is it?
  • Take a look at all the objects that you found. Can you find any similarities between them? Try to find at least two things that are similar about your objects.
  • Try sorting your objects into different categories by putting them in different piles. Can you sort your objects by….
    • Color?
    • Size? 
    • Types of things (plant, rock, toy, flowers)?
  • Which object is the heaviest? Which is the lightest?

3.) Now you are ready to fill up your jar! Layer your items based on how you sorted them. You can always take your objects out of the jar if you think of fun new ways to sort your items. Or, you can put all the things you found right back where you found them.

If you chose objects like flowers and leaves, you may want to put them at the top of your jar so that they don’t get crushed by heavier objects!

Wrap-up questions
Can you think of some other ways you could group your objects together?
What do you think we can learn when we sort objects or living organisms?

Post by Elise